DIMBA

The three recent blasts in the capital might have scared the hell out of Delhiites but what is more shocking is that when the blasts rocked the city, there was hardly any policemen on Delhi streets!

Some Delhi Police officers, on basis of anonymity, have admitted that it was a full-proof plan of the terrorists because they were well aware that during the blast timings police would be busy with daily meetings in their respective police stations. As a set schedule, all policemen are supposed to be present for the daily evening briefing at their respective police stations. The briefing, which starts everyday at 5 pm nearly lasts for an hour after which the policemen leave for their respective areas.

On Saturday, as usual, when the policemen were busy meeting their station house officers, the terrorists simply planted the bombs and walked away. The time of the blast was planned so meticulously that for police it was almost impossible to spot the terrorists.

A high ranking police officer said on the grounds of anonymity, “Keeping a watch on Kashmiri or Pakistani terrorists is not much of a big job because they can easily be distinguished by their looks. Even when the terrorist is a local, police presence certainly induces fear and acts as a deterrent.”

“There have been three incidents of terrorist strikes in about a one kilometer road starting from near the reservation office to the Six Toti Chowk. In 1995, the terrorists planted RDX in the railway reservation office, but luckily it was detected and was defused. Five years later on February 27, 2000, the terrorist struck Kailash Guest House in which the entire hotel building got demolished but there were no fatalities. This Saturday’s blast occurred at the Six Tooti Chowk, which is at a stone throw from the Kailash Guest House,” he explained while trying to stress upon the sensitivity of the area from terrorist attacks.

Sources in Central district police said, although it was a bad day, but for head constable Narender it proved to be a blessing in disguise. Due to the festive mood, Narender somehow forgot to be part of the daily evening briefing. Narendra recalls the incident, “I was standing hardly a few feet away from the spot where the bomb exploded. I immediately looked at the time…it was about 5:30 p.m. I immediately decided to rush to the police station but when I moved thirty meters further there was another huge explosion, but thankfully I escaped the full blow of the blast.”

The terrorists managed to trigger three massive explosions in Delhi but failed to set off the fourth device that was planted in busy Chandni Chowk area. While one bomb blast took place in Paharganj market, the other one in the busy Sarojni Nagar market, the third one was planted in a bus in Govindpuri area. All the attacks were planned in such a way that the bombs exploded almost simultaneously around 5.30 p.m.